Who
are the Americans?
Discuss
and note your ideas
Who lives in America? Where did they come from? When?
Have you seen any films about people immigrating to
America? Which?
Were there any immigrants on The Titanic?
Research
Look at this website and study the data, especially the ‘by region’ information to find out
where Americans come from: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/immigration_data/
1. Explore the historical
timeline to see where the immigrants arrived from in different eras. Choose
one link from ‘A New Land’, ‘Expanding America’ and ‘A Place of Refuge’ menus and
note: Where did the people come from
and why did they go to America.
A New Land:
Expanding America:
A Place of Refuge:
2. Look at the ‘Building a Modern America’ – ‘A
Multicultural America’ page. What information can you find about recent US immigration?
3. Now click on ‘Explore Ellis Island’ and answer the
questions. (There is 1 question per
page.)
·
Where did immigrants land when they arrived
in America?
·
How long did it take to cross the Atlantic?
·
What was the first thing people saw in
America?
·
What did the officers give the immigrants?
·
What did the doctors do while the people
walked upstairs?
·
Why couldn’t women enter America alone?
·
What did the chalk marks X and P mean? What
happened to those people?
·
How many questions did they ask immigrants?
·
When did pre-departure health checks start?
·
What facilities were available at the bottom
of the stairs?
·
What happened at ‘The Kissing Post’?
Think!
When
people come to work in the UAE, what must they do? (Paperwork, procedures,
tests…)
America is a multicultural society; it is culturally
diverse. It is not a ‘melting pot, it is more like a ‘salad bowl’. Americans
often talk about being ‘first generation’, ‘second generation’ or third
generation’ immigrants. ‘First generation’ is term used for the children of
immigrants, ‘second generation’ is the term for the grandchildren of
immigrants, so ‘third generation’ is ……………………………………………………? By the second or
third generation, the connection with the immigrant’s country may be very weak
or non-existent so we can say that these people have assimilated into the
culture. Over the years, some people and cultural groups have assimilated into
American society. They have blended and are examples of assimilation. When two
cultures meet, acculturation happens. This is the meeting of the cultures and
the process of adapting to each other and adopting new behaviours, which can be
a one-way or two-way process. However, some groups may keep many of the
customs, traditional ways and characteristics of their home culture even though
they adapt to the new country. These people have acculturated by adopting new
behaviours in their new country, but they have not assimilated. Immigrants and the
first generation may acculturate but not assimilate, but later generations may
be assimilated.
Think again!
Why
do/did some people/groups assimilate and others do/did not?
